1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to computing systems, and more particularly to methods and apparatus for controlling the behavior of multiple processors and cooling systems therefor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Explosive growth in data center construction has fueled a need for energy consumption awareness, both from the perspective of server power and data center cooling power. Modern servers routinely contain multiple processors and data centers scores or hundreds of servers. Spread out over hundreds of servers, processor power consumption can be enormous. Large numbers of servers and processors dissipate heat and require significant amounts of chilled air to both avoid thermal performance or shutdown issues and to operate at more electrically efficient temperatures.
Many conventional data centers use some form of localized air distribution network that is tailored at least theoretically to deliver varying amounts of cooling air to different locations. Such systems sometimes use motorized louvers to locally vary the air flow. One conventional control scheme for operating a data center cooling system relies on monitoring server room temperature and adjusting the cooling system output accordingly. Another conventional control scheme follows the same general approach, but attempts to achieve finer thermal mapping by monitoring room air temperature at multiple locations and vary air flow in a more localized fashion based on the thermal mapping.
The present invention is directed to overcoming or reducing the effects of one or more of the foregoing disadvantages.